2nd Lieutenant Frank Lloyd Sharpin
8TH BEDFORDSHIRE REGIMENT
THE 8TH BEDFORDSHIRE REGIMENT HAD been present at the advances of both 15th and 25th September, and so was spared the action of 12th October. To the rear of the fighting was Frank Sharpin, a 33 year old born in Bombay, where his father was an archdeacon. Educated at Bedford Grammar School, Frank went into a career in banking. He was with the London Company & Westminster Bank at St James’ in August 1914 when war was declared and he volunteered for the Honourable Artillery Company. Frank spent the winter of 1914 in the trenches and remained on the Western Front until he was wounded in the face at St Eloi in March 1915.
2nd Lieutenant Frank Sharpin. (Authors’ collection)
While at home, Frank was given a commission in the Bedfordshire Regiment and underwent training at Ampthill Park and Oxted, then joined his battalion in France on 2nd October. His fledgling career as an officer was somewhat threatened while on leave in the spring of 1916. After what appeared to be a particularly good night out in London, he was caught out by a military policeman, rather drunk in Leicester Square. Cunningly, when asked to identify himself, Frank gave the name of another officer in the regiment. Unfortunately for him, the authorities saw through his ruse quickly and after a court martial, during which he sheepishly pleaded guilty, Frank was severely reprimanded and then released without prejudice.
Frank and his men had spent October so far receiving plaudits for their involvement in the September offensives, attempting to get clean and training. There were lectures by the divisional gas officer and another on physical training and bayonet fighting. Lewis gunners and bombers went off on their own to rehearse their part in a future attack. On the 8th the Bedfords marched to Trônes Wood in pouring rain and took over shelters from another battalion behind the lines. From there, as Rawlinson’s army prepared to go forward again on the 12th, Frank Sharpin’s men formed large working parties to go forward and work on the lines or help prepare for the upcoming attack.
At zero hour on 12th October the 8th Bedfordshires were in support behind Gueudecourt. As the battle played out in front of them they awaited orders. They came at nightfall. Frank and his men were ordered to cross to the east of Gueudecourt and relieve two exhausted battalions that had taken part in the day’s action: Arthur Taverner’s and the 2nd York & Lancasters. Within hours, Frank Sharpin had been mortally wounded: shot in the stomach. He was evacuated to a casualty clearing station, but succumbed to his wounds on 14th October.
‘Need I say how deeply we mourn his loss?’ His colonel wrote to Frank’s parents. One of his old comrades from the HAC was more effusive:
Having been companions under conditions in which men get to know one another very well indeed, I can only say he was the very best of a grand type of Englishman, To know him was a privilege in itself … the most marked trait was that of a simply grand unselfishness. He had no thought for himself, so long as there was something he could do for a comrade.
Second Lieutenant Sharpin was laid to rest at Grove Town Cemetery, plot I.B.4, three graves away from Arthur Taverner.